Holiness of Life by St. Bonaventure

[Stone]

CHAPTER VII: THE PERFECT LOVE OF GOD

Earlier on, guided by the Holy Spirit, I explained to you how you should train your faculties so that passing from “virtue to virtue” (Ps. lxxxiii, 8), you might advance step by step in the way of holiness. I come now to the soul or the life-giving principle of all the virtues. I refer to charity, the virtue alone capable of leading a man to real holiness. In mortifying the flesh, in overcoming sin and in attaining to grace, nothing avails like charity. Would you reach the highest rung of the ladder of perfection? Nothing could possibly be devised to help you more than charity.

In his book on the contemplative life Prosper writes: “Charity is the life of virtue and the death of vice” (Prosper iii, 13.) “As wax melts before the fire so” vices “vanish into nothingnesss” when they come “face to face” with charity (Cf. Ps. lxvii, 3.) Charity is a virtue of such power that it can both close the gates of hell and open wide the portals of eternal bliss. Charity provides the hope of salvation and alone renders us lovable in God’s sight. It is so great a virtue that among the virtues it is called the virtue. To be founded and rooted in charity is to be wealthy and happy, for without charity we are indigent and wretched (Cf. Apoc. iii, 17.)

Commenting on the words of St. Paul (I Cor. xiii, 2), “If I have not charity,” Peter Lombard quoting St. Augustine says: “Just think a moment on the excellence of charity. Without charity it is useless to possess all else; possess it, and you have everything. To begin to possess it is to possess the Holy Ghost” (Peter Lomb. Comm. on I Cor., quoting S. Aug.) Elsewhere St. Augustine says: “If it is the practice of virtue which leads to Heaven, I unhesitatingly affirm that the virtue to be practised is the pure love of God” (S. Aug. De Morib. Ecc., I, xv, 25.)

Since it is a virtue of supreme importance, charity must be insisted on before all else. Let it be well noted, however, that the charity leading to the possession of God is not any charity, but solely the charity, the love that loves God above all things and loves God’s creatures for God’s sake.

The Holy Gospel gives a clear lead on the qualities of this love for God. “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind” (Matt, xxii, 37; Mark xii, 30; Luke x, 27.) Think well, most cherished handmaid of Jesus Christ, on the love which your Beloved Jesus demands from you. He, your Best Beloved, wishes you to love, and to love Him most lovingly. He desires that you give yourself body and soul, mind and heart entirely to love for Him. He wishes to share your love with no one else. He commands that you be all His.

How is this to be done? What are you to do so that there can be no doubt that you love the Lord God with your whole heart? How is the love of the whole heart given?

For answer, let me quote St. John Chrysostom: “To love God with your whole heart it is required that nothing attract your heart more than God attracts it. You must not take more pleasure in the things of earth than in God. Honours and places of position, love of father and mother and relatives must not count in the scale of love before love of God. Be it friend or relative, place or position, be it what it may, if anything takes up your heart’s love more than God, you do not love God with your whole heart.” (S. Chrys., Hom. on Matt.)

I beg you, dear handmaid of Christ, not to deceive yourself about your love. If you love anything which is not in God, or if loving you do not love for God’s sake, you do not yet love God with your whole heart. It is on this account that St. Augustine writes: “O Lord, whoever divides his love with You and anything or anyone else, gives You less love than is Your due” (S. Aug. Conf. xxix, 40.) If your love for anything does not lead you to greater love for God, you do not yet love Him with your whole heart. If for the love of anything dear to you, you neglect to give Christ those things that are His by right, again I say, you do not love Him with your whole heart.

We must love Our Lord Jesus Christ not only with all our heart, but also with all our soul. The same blessed St. Augustine explains how this is to be done. “To love God with one’s whole soul, is so to center the will on loving Him that nothing in any way opposed to Him wins the least of our love. For the soul to give in its entirety all the love of which its faculties are capable, she must willingly, without the least reluctance or reserve, give her love in full accord with all Her Lord’s desires” (S. Aug. Serm. cviii, 35.)

To love Him because it pleases you to give him your love, or because the world recommends, or the flesh suggests, such love, is not the love God asks. If for the love of Jesus Christ you would be prepared gallantly and lovingly to die in His service should occasion arise, then most certainly you do love Him with your whole soul. If you do not love Him for His own sake or would find it difficult to die for His sake, your love is imperfect. It is not the love of your whole soul that you offer Him. Conform your will in all things to the Divine Will. This is what God demands. Do this, and the love wherewith you love God will be the love of your whole soul.

Not only must you love your Spouse, Jesus Christ, with your whole heart and soul, you must also love Him with your whole mind. What “with your whole mind” means, St. Augustine explains: “To love God with all the love of which the mind is capable is to love Him unceasingly. It means that He must never be absent from our loving thoughts. Memory must keep Him constantly in mind” (S. Aug. Serm. cviii.)